Project Gemini
by MysticRyter
Summary: Colby Roland lived a normal life in Manhattan. Keyword: lived. Ever since she's been dragged into the world of espionage by her adoptive father, some questions haved been raised, and she wants answers, now. Like, how come her childhood friend is working with SHIELD, and why does she look so much like the Captain?
1. Prologue

Prologue

There are a few people I can truthfully say I trust. First up is my adoptive father, Josh Roland. He's single and in his late thirties. I've never really called him my Dad, and he's okay with that. We live in a small apartment in Manhattan. Sometimes though, he's gone. Usually he's back in a week, tops. So sometimes, I'd be left alone in New York. It wasn't exactly the safest thing to do, leaving me in an apartment in freaking _New York City_, but hey. You live, and you learn.

In the times that I wasn't left totally alone, Josh's friend, Clint Barton, would keep an eye on me. When I said earlier that leaving me alone in the city was a bad idea, I can kind of take care of myself. Like that one time when I punched the living daylights out of the robber that used a crowbar to pry the lock off the door.

I noticed that Clint, unlike most New Yorkers, had looked calm and collected when the break-in happened. In fact, he looked like he was ready to leap into action himself. I ended up breaking the robber's nose anyway. After we called the NYPD, Clint didn't look surprised, or even fazed. He looked a little impressed. But that was when I was eight. I'm fourteen now.

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**I wanted to wait to upload this, but I couldn't! Sorry if its extremely slow-**

**Colby Roland: Well isn't that the understatement of the century.**

**Ryter: And short-**

**Colby: Well duh.**

**Ryter: SHUDDUP! Ahem. Please review. You don't want a green troll breaking down your front door.**


	2. Chapter 1

Having trouble getting up this morning would be an understatement. My caramel blonde hair was up in a semi-loose ponytail, and I was practically using my windbreaker as a pillow during breakfast. When a knock came to the door, I hit the back of my head against my chair.

Talk about a wakeup call.

Cautiously, I peeked my head through the door, and then opened it wide when I saw the face of Josh Roland. As usual, he had his red hair close-cropped and was well shaven.

I blinked. "Hey. You're home early."

He let out a little laugh and shook his head. "For a reason. Cole, this time, you've got to come with me."

I blinked again, taking a double take. "Wait. What?"

"You've got to come with me." He repeated.

"Huh. Doesn't sound too fun. What if I don't want to?"

"Does the end of the world sound more fun?"

Normally, I would've said, "You're joking." But when Josh Roland gets _that_ look on his face, he _never_ jokes.

Climbing into the passenger side of Josh's Tribeca, we exited New York City. We drove for about ten minutes in the countryside, if that's possible. We took an exit into a dirt road. We stopped in front a flimsy steel gate with a yellow sign.

" 'The bridge is out,'" I read. "Well, this takes the saying 'off the beaten path' to a whole new level, huh?"

"And _this—_" he stomped the gas pedal. "Is taking 'off-road driving' to the next level."

Okay folks, you can use your imagination. I mean, _come on_! How would _you_ react if your adoptive father drove off a _freaking cliff?_

Yeah. Just a thought.

"You can open your eyes now." Josh said.

When I unclenched my fists from the sides of my seat, I opened my eyes. I didn't check to see if we were on solid ground, because for one thing, the car wasn't totally surrounded by water, and the windows weren't totally shattered. I flexed my cotton white fingers, feeling blood rush back into them. I eyed the black jet in front of us suspiciously.

"Let's go then," I said, unlocking my door.

Josh shook his head. "Not me. Just you."

I froze. Would this count as kidnapping? "But—"

Josh looked at me with so much sorrow, I was afraid he'd burst into tears. Very hesitantly, I opened the door and swung a leg out. I felt something tug on my left arm. I turned.

Josh retracted arm, slowly. "You'll see me again soon, I promise."

Josh Roland was _always_ serious about his promises.

"Okay," I said. "_Fine._ If the fate of the world depends on it, then it must be important."

He nodded, and I turned my baseball cap around, hoping that the visor will cover most of my face. They probably knew what I looked like anyway. I shoved my hands in my pockets and made my way towards the jet.

I noticed three people were waiting: the oldest looking in his late forties, early fifties at the most. He had a serious look on his face and wore a black suit. I could see from the other side of the landing strip (yes, apparently they exist in the middle of nowhere) that his badge read **S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson, Phil**.

Standing next to him was a boy with his hands crammed into the pockets of his dark wash jeans.. He had a gray button-down with short sleeves over long-sleeved blue Under Armor. His long brown hair cleared his ears, but his gray eyes shone, nervously darting back and forth, like he didn't want to be here.

That made two of us.

The last guy gave me the creeps. He had dirty blonde hair like mine, although mine was a bit darker, and his was styled to one side, whereas my bangs were swept to one side. Both of us had denim blue eyes. He wore a brown leather jacket over a plaid shirt, and khakis. When I got to the already lowered boarding ramp, I turned around and saw that Josh had already drove off. Like I didn't see that coming.

"Colby Roland?" Phil extended his hand. I raised mine and I was about to shake it when he said, "Glad you could be here."

"I think that makes one of us." I said, dropping my hand. I glared at it until he awkwardly dropped it to his side.

"I trust that Agent Roland brought you here safely?"

I stared at him. "He's a freaking _agent_?"

Coulson stared for a moment, and then cleared his throat. I already figured out that my adoptive father was actually an agent. I mean, it _does _explain why he was gone a lot. I just wanted to see how he would react.

He cleared his throat. "I assumed you were informed of his occupation."

"Well, clearly that wasn't the only thing I was left in the dark about!" I fumed. That part was at least true.

The youngest guy with the brown hair was on my right. He coughed a bit. "The world's at stake isn't it? Let's just get in the jet and get this over with."

With that, I begrudgingly walked up the ramp.

Apparently, the jet was for military use, because it was a black as the exterior, and there was one long bench on each side, up to the entrance to cockpit. There were seatbelts too, although I'm sure the only person who actually used them was the pilot and co-pilot. Coulson decided to stand at the entrance to the cockpit.

I sat down a couple seats away from the cockpit on the right side. The blonde guy sat down across from me, and the brunette sat to my left. Both the blonde and I were handed glass tablets.

After turning it on, the top of the screen read "Avengers Initiative."

"What the heck is this?" I asked the brunette.

"A team of special people." He answered. "Can I see that?"

"Sure." I handed him the tablet.

"This—" he tapped on another file, labeled, "the Tesseract," "Is the Tesseract."

"No duh." I said.

He smiled. "I think S.H.I.E.L.D.'s trying to use that to create a clean, constantly renewable energy source. But Loki, this god stole it."

"And the Avengers Initiative, like I said, it's a team of special people. Huh, we're not on the list."  
"Why would be on the list?" I asked.

"Well, it'll be for the Initiative, obviously. We're under eighteen so we're still minors. I guess its because we're either really, _really_ talented, or have super powers or something like that to even be considered."

"Such as?"

"I, well—uh . . . it kind of sparked during this one sleep away camp session I had. Dad pulled me out before it ended."

"What happened?"

"Well, long story short, I stopped getting shot by an arrow. I caught it _with my mind_."

"So you're psychic?"

"I'm a telekinetic and telepathic, not a fortune-teller. I can't read minds, but I can communicate with telepathy."

I nodded. "That's pretty sweet."

"Yeah, sort of. What about you?"

"I'm enrolled in online classes. I quit public schools after this one incident I had with bullies. I really don't give a crud who they are or where they come from. They're annoying. So one day, I totally snapped. The guys cut in front of me at the salad bar and knocked my tray out of my hands. I punched him into the opposite side of the room, and busted the other guys up pretty badly. The staff called security, and I outran them all the way home. After that, Roland enrolled me online."

I don't know why I called him Roland. It just didn't feel right to call him Dad, or even Josh anymore, I guess.

"So, you're strong, and fast?"

"I guess."

"You know, I was there while you were asleep."

Bryan and I stopped talking and looked up sharply. It was Coulson, talking to the guy sitting across from me.

"Ugh," Bryan said. "I was hoping this wouldn't happen."

"What?" I asked. "Who's that guy anyway?"

"That's Steve Rogers. He's a captain." Bryan winced. "My dad's a huge fan of him."

"Oh." I blinked. "Coulson's your dad?"

"Yeah. It's a little unfortunate."

"I mean," Coulson was saying. "I was present while you were unconscious."

Steve had a forced smile on his face that said, "Oh. Great."

Bryan looked like he wanted to turn invisible. "Dad, just stop. Please."

I turned to him. "He's a fanatic about Steve? He's doing a great job of curbing his fanboy outbursts."

"Yeah. You see, Steve's uh, Captain America."

I've studied more than my fair share of World War II. To be honest, it was the only thing that in history class that I was remotely interested in. And by that, I meant that it was the only thing that kept me awake.

I blinked. "That's the most normal thing that I've found out all day."

Bryan laughed.

Phil turned to us. "You kids okay?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

"You haven't read the files yet, have you?"

"Not really."

Bryan nudged me. "Well, Steve's part of the Initiative, obviously. I know for sure that have a genius in gamma radiation, and a couple master assassins."

"And we're supposed to be part of this crazy group?"

"Looks like."

We ran out of things to talk about, so we started paying attention to the conversation Phil and Steve were having.

"What about the suit?" Steve asked. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little old-fashioned?"

Bryan and I exchanged looks."

The jet landed, and a woman with short red hair greeted us. Her black jacket had the same eagle emblem that was on Phil's badge. She had a gun in a holster strapped to her leg.

She could probably snap me like a twig.

Phil introduced her as Natasha Romanoff, another one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'S agents. Then she acquainted us with Dr. Bruce Banner, who was the expert in gamma radiation, and part-time green troll that was all over the news four years ago.

Who would've known?

"So this thing is a giant boat?" I asked, walking to the edge of the landing strip.

The others joined me, looking over the edge.

As the floor we were standing on began to shake, Rogers asked, "Is this a submarine?"

"Really?" Banner replied. "They wanted me in a pressurized metal container?"

As if on cue, the water just rushed downward, like someone pulled the plug in the ocean floor. Then, a propeller rose out of the water.

"Oh, no. This is much worse."

"You may want to step inside in minute," Agent Romanoff said. "Its gonna get a little hard to breath."

Natasha led us into the command center, which was filled with a myriad of screen, screen, and wait for it— a giant window. Standing at the middle was a dark-skinned man with an eye patch. He wore a trench coat.

He turned around. "Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D."

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**Who else thinks that this chapter could be better? I do, for one. SO EXPECT RANDOM REWRITES AT ANY GIVEN TIME!**

**Okay folks, review, and feel free to vote on my poll. **

**AND AND AND my best friend, under the penname EpicStepek, is now on this site! You guys can now read her story and vote on her poll!**


	3. Chapter 2

**I can't believe I forgot the disclaimer. I don't own the Avengers, only Colby Roland and Bryan Coulson.**

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Chapter 2

"Nice to meet you too," I said, earning a slight glare from him.

As he stepped off his platform, he turned to a young woman—probably in her late twenties— in a navy blue S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. Like Natasha, she had a sidearm.

"Agent Hill," he said. "Please escort Colby and Bryan to their quarters."

We caught the gaze of Phil, who nodded. Bryan and I exchanged glances, then shrugged. After a few minutes of following Agent Hill around, I asked, "Who was that pirate guy? Is he your boss?"

She looked over her shoulder. "He's Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"So that makes him my boss too." I muttered, loud enough for Bryan to hear.

We arrived at an area that seemed less traversed— at this hour, at least. We stopped at the left side of the of the corridor, at the two rooms closest to the end.

"Theses will be your quarters during this whole ordeal. Just don't blow up anything."

I shrugged. "Sure. I won't _blow_ anything up."

Agent Hill managed a half smile. When she left the corridor, I turned to Bryan.

"Left or right?" I asked.

"I'll go left." He decided.

So I got the caboose. Yay.

"I'm going to check my room out. You might as well too."

"Then I'll meet you in the cafeteria."

"Didn't you have breakfast already?"

"I didn't _eat_ breakfast, if that's what you're asking."

I was about to step inside when Bryan said, "See you in five."

"See you."

When I walked inside, the walls were dark gray—which was painted, and not steel, surprisingly—and the carpet was black. The bed had navy blue sheets. The dresser was under the bed, and filled with most of my clothes: cargo shorts, jeans, t-shirts, and jackets. There was also a conjoining bathroom with a similar color scheme. On the counter lay my toothbrush and usual brand of toothpaste.

At my excuse of not brushing my teeth this morning was legit.

Bryan had beaten me to the cafeteria, and had reserved one of the smaller tables. He had a glass tablet with him. I grabbed a yogurt and joined him.

After I sat down, he slid it over, and I almost spewed strawberry mango goo all over the screen.

Bryan had pulled up the list of people who were confirmed to be part of the Avengers Initiative. Not surprisingly, Natasha Romanoff was one of the master assassins.

Then what whas the thing that shocked me to the core? Was it the fact that _Tony Stark_ was actually _part _of the Initiative.?

No.

Was the other one Agent Maria Hill?

That wouldn't have been too surprising, would it?

The other assassin was Clint Barton. And his status read "compromised."

"Compromised doesn't mean dead." Bryan said as I swallow the lump in my throat. I looked up at him. He was looking at me seriously, with a concerned look on his face. "You know him?"

"I thought you said you couldn't read minds." I said.

"I can't. I just saw your reaction. You were pale all of a sudden. I thought you'd throw up."

I exhaled deeply. "I'm okay. I really shouldn't have been surprised." I caught myself. "About Clint being on the list, I mean. Not him being compromised."

I finished my yogurt in silence.

After I threw my plastic carton in the trash, I read the _entire_ report on the Tesseract, and how this psycho god Loki stole it. If the Tesseract was powerful enough to provide unlimited clean energy to the entire world, then there's no telling what a _god _that knew how to use it as a _weapon_ could do.

"We should probably head to the command center." Bryan said.

So we did, after Bryan headed to his room to put his tablet away. Instead, he came out with a pocket-sized one.

We didn't really talk much on the way. I had my baseball cap turned back around and my hands shoved in my pockets. My gaze stayed at my feet, though I didn't bump into anything.

When I arrived, Fury, Roger, and Romanoff were listening attentively to someone at a computer.

"Sir, I've got a lock on Loki!" he exclaimed. "Forty percent. Cross-referencing . . . seventy percent! He's in Stuttgart!"

Bryan and I hurried over.  
"You found Loki?" I asked. "He should be hiding, not waltzing into a party, right?"

"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Steve said, with his arms crossed.

No freaking _duh_.

"Roger, Romanoff, suit up!" Fury ordered. "You two head to Germany, STAT!"

They nodded and left the room.

"What about us?" Bryan asked, looking Fury directly in the eye.

Fury glanced at Phil, who oh-so subtly shook his head.

"You two—" Fury hesitated for a split second. "Head to the third gym. It's time to begin your training."

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**Sorry this is so darn short. The problem is, I kinda need help. My parents won't let me see the Avenger for a third time, and my memory hasn't been the best lately. So if you guys could help point out stuff like details I missed or dialogue I screwed up, that would be great. **

**I'd like to take the time to acknowledge The Fourteenth, GingerHeit, aireagle92, EpicStepek (one of my real life best friends), imaninja41, as well as Justasmalltowngirl2713, and AccioVoldemortsNose. You guys have all been a big inspiration and confidence booster. So I'm working double time to get another chapter out by the end of this week. Stay tuned!**

**Oh, and leave a review! **


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Wonderful." I said. "Can we start already?"

The personal trainer assigned to Bryan and I glowered at me condescendingly. Agent Blake was one of the best when it came to physical combat. He was below Agent Hill, who was below Clint and Romanoff.

"You need to learn the basics!" he exclaimed incredulously.

He taught us punches, kicks, blocks, holds, stuff like that. Trust me, I was not the only one in the room who didn't want to be there. I was pretty sure Bryan was already under a training regimen, and Agent Blake was already losing his confidence after both Bryan and I outshot him on the Helicarrier's shooting range.

Anyway, he told us he was going to jump us, and we were supposed to block his attacks. After that, we suppose to roundhouse his leg to knock him down.

Guess what I did.

First, I got into position. When Blake came at me, he went for a middle punch. I sidestepped, grabbing his wrist and his elbow. I twisted his arm around, shoving it behind his back. His palm reached all the way up to his neck.

I pivoted my hip, roundhouse kicking his side.

His breath left him in one big exhale through his mouth. He crashed to the ground. Correction: he face-planted.

I ended up sitting on top of him.

When I helped him up, he started massaging his wrist and rotating his shoulder.

Bryan, who was sitting on the stainless steel bench with a water bottle in his lap. He was clearly trying not to laugh. What came out of his mouth was a series of giggles and splutters.

"How long have you trained?" Blake demanded.

"Um . . . like, never." I thought a bit. "Unless you count the time someone made a bet with me that I couldn't do forty back-handsprings this one time in Central Park."

"Okay show-off!" Bryan called, a ridiculously huge grin on his face. "You've had enough fun. Now it's my turn!"

He walked over to Agent Blake as I took his spot on the bench. Bryan muttered something to him. He was speaking to Blake very quietly although I could hear him clear as crystal.

"Give me all you got," Bryan muttered.

Blake let out a laugh, his arrogant and pompous attitude returning. "Think that you're tough just because your girlfriend over there lucked out?"

I shot straight up and jabbed a finger at him.

"I'm_ not _his girlfriend!" I looked at Bryan. "You'd better beat the living daylights out of him, Bryan. Before I beat you to it!"

"That was already on my agenda."

"I'm not going to hold back." Blake said warningly.

"Then don't."

Without warning, Black spun into a three-sixty, the flat of his foot nearly smashing into Bryan's nose. Bryan brought both of his hands up to block and cartwheeled way, viciously kicking at Blake's throat.

Blake backflipped away, and Bryan somersaulted underneath his legs, flipping over his back, and kneed him in the stomach.

"You seem outmatched, Agent Blake." I commented.

"Maybe _you'd_ like a rematch?" Blake snarled, clearly frustrated that his butt was getting whupped by two "inexperience rookies that would've never made it in _real_ S.H.I.E.L.D. Basic training."

I sighed. He was just another moron who bugged me one time too many. He clearly was _begging_ for his butt to be handed to him on a silver platter.

"Sure." I said, standing up.

In another minute, he was floored.

"You know what?" Blake said weakly. "You two can just leave."

Bryan and I high-fived each other and left.

"You gonna get changed?" Bryan asked.

"You're kidding, right?" I said. "I barely broke a sweat!"

"I still think he let us win."

"I think he gives me the creeps."

Both us burst out laughing.

We stopped by my quarters, in case anything else was dropped off. Turns out, something was. On the bed lay a dark gray earpiece that I almost sat on. I picked it up, and fitted it into my right ear.

"You probably got one too." I said.

"We might as well check."

I followed him into his quarters next door. They were the same color scheme, but he had a mahogany coffee table a few feet away from the bed. Sure enough, he had an earpiece lying on the table.

While he fitted it into his ear, I looked around. Everything just seemed more . . . permanent, I guess. I couldn't shake the feeling that Bryan might just spend the rest of his life her.

My thoughts were interrupted when someone page Bryan and I.

"Fury to Roland and Coulson. I see you two found our gifts. Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers, Thor and Stark are on their way with Loki. Banner's in his lab. I suggest you prepare yourself."

"The guy's bad news." I agreed. "Loki, I mean."

"I also heard about your training with Agent Blake. I thought no one would shut him up."

"You're welcome."

"Fury out."

"Prepare ourselves how?" I asked Bryan.

"I don't know."

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**Sorry it's so darn short! There's just an announcement I'd like to make:**

**On June 23 (According to GTM timing) there will be a BLACK OUT!**

**Fanfiction is planning on taking down stories. I do not know the specifics but anything over M rated stories will be taken down, as well as songfics. It could be yours or one of your favorites, so don't let it happen. FIGHT THE POWER!**

**On June 23 DO NOT enter the fanfiction site; do not log in, read, or review anything until June 23 is over. Please take part in this and spread the word, for how are we supposed to unleash our imaginations if we are restricted!**

**Thank you for reading this short rambling and please spread the word and take part in the black out on JUNE 23.**

**SAVE THE STORIES!**


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Two seconds after Loki had stepped off the Quinjet's boarding ramp, several guards rushed forward to escort him to his "cell," a thick glass container that could be hurled down to land all the way down to the earth.

Ouch.

Bryan and I were asked (well, _ordered _would be a better word) to come to the conference table. It was in the command center on a larger raised platform connected to the rest of the room by a couple steps worth of stairs.

People were filing in: Rogers, Agent Romanoff, some buff guy with shoulder length blonde hair, and Dr. Banner. Fury had gone down to have a friendly chat with our favorite world-conqueror.

I found a seat in between Steve and Bryan. Banner and the other blonde— I remembered his name was Thor— decided to just stand. Bryan's dad came and stood, and so did Agent Hill.

As Loki was un-handcuffed, he was thrown inside the glass cell; Fury approached him, standing next to the control console.

"In case it's unclear, you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass—" he pushed the a button, and a hatch opened up, sucking the air out of the room. "Thirty-thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap."

_Even though it's made of glass._ I thought. _But it _does_ have a steel frame._

Fury pressed the button again, closing the hatch. "You get how that works?" He pointed at Loki. "Ant." He pointed to the button. "Boot."

Loki laughed. "An impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

Loki turned and looked into the camera. "The mindless beast, makes play to be a man."

I glanced at Banner. That one was pretty low.

"How desperate are you?" Loki asked. "You call on these lost creatures to defend you."

_I take offense to that._

I looked up, startled, then realized that the voice was Bryan using his psychic link.

_I know right?_

He smiled.

"How desperate am I?" Fury asked. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, then you kill 'cause its fun. You have made me _very_ desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh." Loki said. "It _burns_ you to have come so close. To have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then be reminded what _real_ power is."

"Yeah, well, let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something." Fury walked off, leaving Loki alone.

After a moment of silence, someone spoke up.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" It came from Banner.

"Loki's gonna drag this out." Steve said, getting to the point. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri, that none of Asgard nor any world knew. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army," Steve repeated. "From outer space."

"Did I mention we got a man on the moon?" I muttered.

"So he's building another portal." Banner said. "That what he needs Eric Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked.

"He's an astrophysicist." Banner explained.

"He's a friend."

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him." Steve cut in. He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Banner said. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."

"I don't care how you speak." Thor boomed. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

Agent Romanoff looked up at him sharply, but didn't move her head. "He killed eighty people in two days."

"He's adopted." Thor said quickly.

"Iridium," Banner said. "What did they need the Iridium for?"

"What?" I asked.

"While Captain Rogers and I were in Germany, Loki created a diversion while Agent Barton and some men stole a few samples." Romanoff explained.

"Then what did they need it _for_?"

"It's a stabilizing agent."

Everyone turned to look at who had spoken. It was Tony Stark, walking to the conference table with Phil escorting him.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." he continued, walking past Thor. He patted the god's arm with the back of his hand condescendingly. "No hard feelings, Point Blank, you've got a mean swing." Just before he stepped onto Fury's platform, he added, "Also, it means the portal can stay open as long as Loki wants."

"That isn't good." Bryan muttered.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." I said back.

Stark asked one of the Carrier BridgeTechs to raise Fury's monitors. "That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did!"

"Galaga?" Steve asked.

"It's an arcade game from the '80s." Bryan explained quickly.

Stark covered an eye.

"How does Fury even see these?" He asked Agent Hill.

"He turns."

"Sounds exhausting." As he stepped off the platform, his right hand lingered at the bottom of the screen. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density; something to kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear physics?" asked Agent Hill, skeptical.

"Last night." He said. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"I think you're only who had access to it." I said hotly.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.

"He's got to hear the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Banner said.

"Unless," Stark cut in. "Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally, someone who speaks English."

"Is that what happened?" Steve and I asked.

"I think so." Bryan said, the first time he said something loud enough for everyone to hear.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Stark said, shaking the doctor's hand. "Your work on the anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"Uh . . . thanks."

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cue." Fury said. "I was hoping you might join him."

"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve said. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"HYDRA?" I asked. "Sounds familiar."

"Its World War II stuff." Bryan said quickly."

"Oh, I knew that."

"Whatever."

"I don't know about that," Fury said. I was about to smart-mouth back at him, then I realized that he was talking to Steve. "But it _is_ powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor asked. "I do not understand."

Steve's hand shot up. "I do!"

Stark rolled his eyes.

"What? I understood that reference."

The meeting was adjourned.

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**HOLY FRIGGIN CRAP. THE REVIEW BUTTON GOT A RESKIN. SO PLEASE USE IT.**

**Okay, I WILL respond to your reviews. I just realized after looking through my outbox that I didn't. Go figure.**

**I plan on writing more OC stories like this one, and I can't decide, so go ahead and vote on my poll.**

**On a more serious matter (translation: it concerns THIS STORY), I don't want to end this off _right after_ the movie ends. I kind of jumped into this idea after I saw the Avengers and didn't map out a plotline. So, I'm open to ideas. THERE WILL BE ROMANCE FOR COLBY (hint, hint, wink, wink)!**

**And since my creative juices (that came out wrong) are NOT flowing, after the next chapter are so, I will NOT be updating until I get enough ideas!**

**AND THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Okay, its really, really unlike me to have an AN at the _beginning _of the chapter, but I hope y'all had a happy July 4th (which is Steve's birthday. No, Chuggaaconroy fans, I meant Steve Rogers).**

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Chapter 5

Bryan and I were planning to head to the cafeteria when we were pulled aside by non other than Tony Stark.

"What do you want?" I snapped.

"Ooh, feisty, I feel so scared!"

"Shut it." Bryan said, his hands stuffed in his pockets. "What do you want?"

"Okay then." Stark said, stroking his chin. "I'm just saying that S.H.I.E.L.D. is not the kind of company that has "Take Your Kids To Work" day."

"I think it might be because of the Avengers Initiative." Bryan said suddenly.

Tony blinked. "How do you know about it?"

"It was the report on the tablet that my dad gave us."

"But why would you be part of it? You're not on the list."

"I don't know," I said. "But I'm sure it wouldn't be because of my IQ. According to Bryan here, its because we're minors."

"Then how many other kids does S.H.I.E.L.D. have on their speed dial? It doesn't add up. They should be here now."

"Hey," Bryan said suddenly. "Do the others know about the Initiative?"

"I don't think so. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to join Banner in his little research quest."

After he was out of earshot, I turned to Bryan.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

Well, you we kind of—never mind."

I know for a fact that Bryan Coulson is a shy guy. He doesn't like talking to people he doesn't know very well, and he definitely doesn't like being recognized for something he did, no matter what it was. After seeing him snap at playboy Tony Stark (although I'm pretty sure he was teasing), well, I just let it drop.

Having nothing else left to do, I left to find Dr. Banner's play place. Bryan and I just happened to walk in while Stark and Rogers having an all-or-nothing verbal brawl.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Rogers asked incredulously.

"Funny things are." Stark replied.

"Threatening the safety of the lives on this ship isn't funny. No offense, Doctor."

"No," Banner said, leaning over a computer "It-it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle . . . pointy things."

"You're tiptoeing, big man," Stark said, pointing at Banner. "You need to strut."

_Whatever that meant._

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Rogers shot back.

"You think I'm not?" Tony snapped. "Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? And why did he bring two _kids_?" He pointed at Bryan and I. Banner looked up from the computer, and Rogers turned his head to look at us. "What isn't he telling us? I can't solve an equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Rogers asked, returning his attention to Tony.

"No freaking duh," I said. When I saw Rogers's look of confusion, I remembered he was from the 1940s. "I mean, its really, really obvious."

"He's a spy," Tony went on. "Captain, he's _the_ spy. His secrets have secrets." He pointed at Banner. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"Uh," Banner muttered, spreading his hands. "I just wanna finish my work here and—"

"Doctor?" Rogers asked sternly.

"'A warm light for all mankind to share,' Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it."

"Well," Banner pointed at Tony. "I think he meant that for you."

"The Stark Tower?" Rogers asked. "That big, ugly . . . building in New York?"

Tony gave him a look.

"That's just the prototype." Tony explained. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

"So why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring you in on the Tesseract project?" Banner asked. "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I remember when Cap crashed Schmitt's plane, there were weapons." Bryan whispered to me. "I think that they might've been powered by the Tesseract."

"Why did you say?" Steve asked, taking a few steps toward Bryan.

Bryan wasn't that much of a confrontational type. I stepped towards Rogers. Sure, he's a gentleman, but I know for a fact that World War II is still are sore subject for him. Who know when he'll snap?

I could take a couple hits and heal faster than most people. I know how to defend myself more competently than most people. Getting jumped by local gangs taught me that.

If Rogers was going to hit someone, it might as well be someone who could take that hit.

"The Tesseract, it was on Schmitt's plane, wasn't it?" I asked.

Steve's eyes blanched for a second, and his breath drew a sharp intake. "It was."

My shoulders relaxed slightly. "Were they glowing blue or anything like that?"

"Some of them were." He replied coldly, denim blue eyes searching my face.

"Huh," I rubbed the back of my neck. "It could be powering the weapons."

"Or they could be physical manifestations of the Tesseract's energy as weapons!" Bryan said, snapping his fingers.

"Both are very plausible theories," Tony said, popping a blueberry into his mouth.

"Which I'll look into once my decryption program finishes breaking into all S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files."

"I'm sorry," Steve said. "Did you say . . . ?"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge."

_So that what Stark stuck under that screen_. I thought.

Tony tilted his bag of fruit towards Steve. "Blueberry?"

Steve ignored him. "Yet you're confused why no one wants you around?"

"An intelligence organization that _fears_ intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man that means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following's not really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you?"

"Of all the people in this room, which one is; a) wearing a spangly outfit, and b) not of use?"

I turned to leave.

"Hold up!" Tony looked at me with his peripherals. "I said 'and'_."_

"I knew that."

I left the lab, heading straight for my quarters. As soon as I got in, I slipped on a pair of black gloves. I zipped up my windbreaker so it won't make a sound.

As usual, Bryan Coulson was two steps ahead of me. We were standing in from of a black door somewhere in a restricted area of the Helicarrier. He said he hacked the cameras, so for the time being, we were invisible. I didn't exactly bet _all_ of my chips on that, but alarms didn't go off, and security didn't rush out to drag us to Fury, so that's one thing that actually went our way today.

"What are we going to do about that lock?" I asked, gesturing to the black rectangle on the wall. "I can't exactly pick that."

"It's a retinal scanner." Bryan explained.

"So that means we won't be getting inside anytime soon."

"Actually, if I can hack it, I might be able to make it think that I'm my dad. Or, if I can disengage the lock, we could pry it open."

"Sounds good to me."

I should say, my fuse is pretty short. Given the events of this morning, I think it's completely safe to say that Fury shredded it to a stub.

I pressed my fingertips to the right side of the door. S.H.I.E.L.D., being the overly paranoid top-secret government organization it is, didn't have the door open French-style.

Bryan saw what I was doing and looked up. "Uh, Colby? I don't think you'll—"

He shut up as I tore the door open.

"Didn't I tell you that I'm stronger than the average girl?"

"Yeah. I didn't think you were _that_ strong. That door is at least two feet's worth of adamantium. How'd you do it?"

"Girl power?"

"Hey! What are you two doing here?"

Bryan and I jumped at the sudden outburst. We spun around and faced the source. It was Rogers, still in his full Captain America regalia.

"Oh, um, well we . . . aw crap." I stammered. Swallowing, I continued. "So you found us. What are you gonna do? Drag us to Fury?"

"What are you guys doing here?" he repeated.

"What about you? You spend all your time in your quarters or the gym." I said. "I guess I'm not the only who believed Stark after all."

"And so you break down a door. How'd you manage that?"

"I guess I just . . . did it." I replied, stepping through the now open doorway. "Now, you want the truth or not?"

He shut up and followed Bryan and I.

Inside was almost completely black, lit by only a few dim lights and computer screens. There was another platform, about twenty feet above us.

Rogers cleared it easily, leaping up twenty-five feet. Bryan and I climbed the ladder, although I'm pretty sure he could lift himself with his telekinetic powers.

Rogers began looking through boxes labeled **PHASE 2**. I went over to Bryan, who was looking through files on the nearby computer. He skimmed past several files until one of them caught my eye.

"Open that one." I murmured, pointing.

In all honesty, it wasn't anything special. It probably had the shortest name on the entire list, with only two words to its name. I guess I felt drawn to it, like it was something I should've known about in a past life—like airbending.

I began skimming the file, notes and diagrams of DNA and Dr. Erskine's coveted super-soldier serum. Not much of a surprise, is it?

But the last section, at the bottom turned everything I knew about myself upside-down. With my birthday being April1st, well, it just made my whole life feel like a big joke. It was one giant slap in the face.

I glanced over where Steve was. He had already left, and I was relieved. That would at least prevent the inevitable awkwardness that would be bound to happen if I had to explain everything to him.

"Bryan, I need you to download the entire file into your tablet." I said

"But why would you—holy crap. Is that really—"

"Yeah," I said. "It is. Just download the freaking file already.

I crammed my hands into my pockets and waited.

"It's done." Bryan announced.

"Okay." I exhaled. "Good

I jumped off the platform, and Bryan glided down using his telekinetic abilities.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm going to have a talk with Fury about Project Gemini."

* * *

**I just checked my story stats, and wow! You guys really blew me away! SIXTEEN reviews! SIXTEEN! That's double of all my other stories combined! That, and TEN favs, and TWENTY-FOUR alerts! I never thought Any of my stories would be this popular, so I thought this week's update would be extra long, just for you guys. And PLEASE PLEASE vote on my poll. I really want to know what you guys think of all my stories, as well as future projects!**

**And, I'm still open to ideas that take place AFTER the movie is over, because I don't want to cheat y'all out of a good story. I haven't gotten any ideas yet. **

**And, the sequel is well under way!**


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Apparently, I had to wait in line. Bryan and I walked into Banner's lab, and found every single one of the Avengers (with an exception of Clint) arguing. Fury, as usual, seemed to be at the center of it all.

Banner was angrily pointing at one screen with a pen. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Fury pointed at Thor. "Because of him."

Said god pointed a thumb at himself incredulously. "Me?"

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet that had a grudge mass that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but that we are hopelessly, _hilariously_ outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet!" Thor protested.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury countered. "And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"Like how you controlled the cube?" Rogers asked.

"Your work with the cube is what drew Loki and his allies." Thor explained. "It is the signal to all realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

Rogers frowned. "A higher form?"

"You forced our hand." Fury retorted. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent." Stark stated. "'Cause that always calms everything down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure that if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep . . ." Roger trailed off.

"Wait, wait!" Stark exclaimed, waving his hands. "How is this about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor mused.

"Excuse me," Fury cut in. "Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

As they started playing the blame game, tempers rose, as well as voices. This was a major problem.

Bryan and I just watched on without saying a word.

"I don't believe this." Bryan muttered.

"Me neither." I agreed.

Phil Coulson would be appalled at the sight of this. I swear if this is Earth's best, no, it's practically the _only_ defense, then we might as well lie down in a field of daisies and let Loki walk all over us.

Unable to take it anymore, the last wall I held onto crumbled.

"HEY!" Six head turned to face me. About one hundred percent of them looked surprised, to some degree. Like Natasha Romanoff, who remained pretty much impassive, except for he almost imperceptible right eye twitch.

I took a deep breath. "This is un—freaking—believable. You five (I don't really think Fury counts. He's been an irremovable thorn in my back side for the whole time I've known him, which is like, three—four-ish hours) have the entire fate of the world on _all_ your shoulders, and you act like a bunch of kindergarteners!" I gestured to myself. "Leave that to the pro."

Thor laughed. "You speak control, yet you court chaos."

Even with Sparky's fancy-schmancy Shakespearian speech, I got the gist of his statement.

I bit my lip and frowned, unsure whether my face paled or reddened. I opened my mouth and stepped forward. But before I could figure out what to say, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Bryan.

He shook his head. "Now isn't the time for that." Boldly, he looked up at everyone else. "She's right, you know."

"That's their M.O., isn't it?" Banner said. "I mean, what are we? A team?"

_Don't even think about going back down that road, Banner._ I thought.

"No, no, no," he continued. "We're a chemical mixture that_ makes_ chaos. We're—we're a time-bomb."

_Guess he ignored the giant "wrong way" sign._

"You need to step away." Fury said.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Stark asked, putting a hand on Rogers's shoulder.

Rogers shoved it off. "You know damn well why! Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that away and what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

Rogers smirked and laughed coldly. "I know guys with known of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the one to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

Rogers smiled and shook his head coldly. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

Stark scoffed. "A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers." I flinched. "Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Put on the suit," Rogers challenged. "Let's go a few rounds."

Thor laughed. "You people are so petty. And tiny."

I shot him a glare, which unfortunately went unnoticed by his god-sized ego.

"Yeah, this is a tee . . ." Banner muttered.

"Agent Romanoff," Fury said. "Would you escort Dr. Banner to his—"

"Where?" Banner asked. "You're renting my room!"

"The cell was just—"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know, I tried." Everyone began to pay attention to him, obviously shocked. Banner swallowed. "I got low, I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

His voice had morphed into a dangerously low growl. I gulped and began inching toward the door. Stark and Rogers gave Bryan and I backward glances. Fury and Agent Romanoff began unhooking their guns' holsters.

"Dr. Banner," Rogers said, drawing Banner's attention. "Put down the scepter."

Banner blinked, and looked down at his left hand, seemingly shocked when he found that he was holding Loki's glorified toothpick. Just as he set it back on the counter, a computer with the Tesseract—searching algorithm went off. Banner made his way toward it.

"Sorry kids," he said, almost wistfully. "You don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor demanded.

"I can get there faster." Stark said.

"Look," Rogers began. "All of us—"

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard." Thor said crossly. "No human is a match for it.

Stark turned to leave, but Rogers stopped him.

"You're not going alone!" He protested.

"Stark turned and raised an eyebrow. "You gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit. Let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

"Oh my God!"

I had just enough time to see Banner take off his glasses and squint at the computer screen, just as an explosion tore through the room.

I was thrown backward and hit against the glass doorframe. With my vision blurring for a second, I blinked hard. Bryan was helping me up, and I shoved the tablet containing all of the info on Project Gemini into Fury's arms.

As Bryan and I raced down the halls, I asked, "Shouldn't we be trying to help Stark and Rogers repair Engine Three?"

"Yeah. Agent Barton and a group of soldiers are going to try and put us in the water, so we can't go anywhere. Next, they'll cut off our communications. We'll be sitting ducks!"

"How do you know this?"

"It's modern and classical warfare, from Loki and Barton's combined knowledge."

"Okay then. After they do all that they'll . . ."

Bryan and I looked at each other at the same time. _"Free Loki!"_

We took off at a sprint, head to Loki's cell. Neither of us knew what to do when we got there. Looking back, sprinting was a bad idea, since Loki's cell was on he other side of the Helicarrier, but I don't think that would be our biggest problem right now.

As Bryan and I rounded the corner, we had an unfortunate run-in with two of the soldiers part of Loki's strike team. They had machine guns.

Crap.

Since they were under Loki's control, I didn't really expect them to hesitate. They opened fire, spraying a flurry of bullets.

I crouched and rolled to the side. I took a quick, deep breath, gathered my wits, and _ran up the wall_. As soon as I got behind him, I spun into the three-sixty, and smashed my heel against his nose. He went down like a house of cards.

Poor guy.

I took his sidearm and strapped it on my hip. I looked over to see if Bryan needed any help.

As it turns out, the other poor soldier didn't know what hit him. Literally. Bryan used his telekinetic powers to smash the guys face into the wall. We had left them both unconscious, and Bryan took the other sidearm.

All of a sudden, the floor we were standing on began to rock, and a metallic groan sounded throughout the Helicarrier, and I was thrown into Bryan until the floor righted itself.

"It's Barton!" fury's voices sounded through my earpiece. "He took our systems. He's headed for the detention lab. Does anybody copy?"

"This is Agent Romanoff. I copy."

"You okay?" Bryan asked.

"Yeah." I said. "Sorry."

"No biggie. We've got a god to stop anyway, right?"

After we rounded the corner, the first thing I noticed was Agent Phil Coulson slumped against the wall, blood seeping through the corner of his mouth, and a flesh wound extremely close to his heart. A prototype of the Phase 2 weapons was sitting in his lap.

Loki had dropped Thor to God-knows-where, and he had the scepter in his grasp. One of his troopers had noticed us, but before he could raise his machine gun, I shot him in the leg.

Loki turned as Bryan called in for a med team to be put on hold. I swallowed, knowing that my job would be to keep his attention from the Coulsons. My eyes widened when I saw that deranged smile, and I really, really wanted to put a bullet through his smug little face.

"Hello children." Suddenly, he shot forward, scepter at the ready. In a split second, my brain processed what he was trying to do.

I jumped back, but Loki used his scepter as a club, belting me through the wall. I fell to the lower decks. Then I heard a boom.

_Hey Bryan! What the heck was that?_

_Um, Dad just shot him._

_Where's Loco now?_

_He just disappeared._

Crap.

_I won't risk climbing back up. Those pipes look pretty important._

_Okay._

_Um . . . is the med team there?_

_Yeah. I hope Dad's okay. That wound looks really bad._

_I'll try and be back ASAP. Okay?_

_Thanks._

I ventured farther down until I heard grunts. I though they were the mechanics and engineers working to get the engines back online. Then I heard a loud slap, and I realized someone just got punched.

I rushed to the scene and hid behind one of the larger pipes and snuck a peek. It was Natasha, exchanging blows with Clint.

I picked up a ten-pound wrench. Treading as silently as I could, I hid behind Clint, amazed that he couldn't hear my heart hammering up my throat, and swung, aiming for the head.

Clint fell to the ground, in a crumpled heap.

I dropped the wrench and helped Natasha up.

"Thanks." She said, glancing at Clint.

"No problem," I said. "And don't worry, he'll be fine when he gets his cup of joe."

* * *

**GUESS WHAT I DID LAST WEEKEND . . . my sister and I forced my mom to watch Power Rangers: Mystic Force AND Jungle Fury! :D **

**And it kinda grew on her. So now she wants us to watch Lightspeed Rescue with her. _**

**But that's not my point. My point is, in addition to the sequel for PG, I'm also writing a Jungle Fury story, and hopefully Mystic Force. **

**...And I still don't understand why my two favorite Power Rangers series gets all the hate.**

**And please review!**


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Natasha had Clint escorted to an interrogation room. Fury gathered Tony, Steve, Bryan and I to the conference table. Fury stood in front, as usual. I took a seat at the end closest to Fury. Bryan sat in between Steve and I. Tony sat across from the former.

Everyone looked like they were in pretty bad shape; Tony had his hands folded on the glass top, and was seriously spacing out. Steve wasn't much better. If anything, it was Bryan that got hurt the worst. His face was in his hands. His breathing was steadier than it was half an hour ago, though sobs shook his body every now and then.

Fury tossed a pile of cards—Captain America trading cards—in Steve's direction. They smeared the glass red.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." He said. Bryan looked up and frowned. Steve picked one of the bloodiest cards and flipped it in his hand. "Guess he never did get you to sign them."

Bryan glared pointedly at Fury.

"We're dead air up here." He continued. "Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." He paused. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something riskier. There was an idea—Stark and the kids know about this—called the Avengers Initiative.

"The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together to fight the battles we could never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."

Stark got up and glanced at the rest of us. He turned to leave.

"Stark," Fury called. "I think you'd like to hear about Project Gemini."

"Why? It has nothing to do with me."

"It has everything to do with your father." Fury replied.

Stark sat back down." I'm listening."

I leaned forward. "So am I."

Fury produced a tablet—the same one I shoved into his gracious hands —from his trench coat and set it on the table.

"Fifty years ago, it was decided that America needed a new protector. Howard Stark tossed around a few ideas, and one of them seemed to be the most . . . plausible one. The idea was shot down several times, spanning thirty years. We decided to put it to action anyway. Six years w0rth of research and experimentation paid off. Out scientists created a . . . child. Retired agent Josh Roland was elected to care of her." He turned to me. "To teach you."

"Okay, first things first," I said, holding up a finger. "Am I programmed to fight or something?" Bryan flinched. "Because I'm sure Josh didn't teach me any of that."

"Yes," he replied. "You are."

"I have a question!" Tony raised his hand and, as expected, he didn't wait to be called on. "How she get created in the first place. You can't—" he looked at me and raised his hand, "no offense—make something out of nothing."

"None taken," I replied, returning my attention to Fury. "How_ did_ that happen anyway?"

"We had genetic material provided." Fury replied.

"From _who_?"

Fury hesitated, and I leaned back, waiting for his verdict.

I took the time to look around. Bryan was twiddling his fingers and stared at the table. Tony was leaning back and massaged his temple.

After a few moments of silence, it was Steve that broke it. "Who was it?"

Fury looked him in the eye. "You, Cap. It was you."

Even if Rogers didn't know much of today's techno-lingo, it dawned on him what _that _meant.

I had a lingering suspicion about this, and I still felt like I got shot. I mean, I shouldn't be surprised since its S.H.I.E.L.D., but still.

"I guess that explains the door." I muttered.

"What door?" Fury asked.

"I kind tore open an adamantium." I said coolly, pushing my chair back. "Now if you excuse me, I need a breather."

I stormed out of the conference room, my mind swirling in an angry haze.

"Hey Colby! Wait up!"

I froze mid-step. The voice belonged to Bryan. As soon as he caught up to me, he bent over, leaning on his knees.

"What?" I snapped.

"Uh . . . I just—I just want to see how you were holding up, I guess."

"Me? Oh, I'm just peachy."

"Well, you took it better than I thought you would. I mean, hilarious as it would be, you didn't punch out Fury's lights."

I shrugged. "Whatever."

"You sure? It isn't everyday someone finds out that they're the clone of a famed war hero."

I sighed and turned to face him. "Look, it _is_ shocking. Acting aloof is how I keep my cool."

"Fair enough. At least let me walk you to your quarters."

"Um, thanks. I guess."

We passed by the interrogation rooms, only two turns away from our quarters. As we did, I peeked inside.

Clint was sitting next to Natasha, and when he looked up, he blinked in surprise.

"Natasha," I heard Clint ask. "Is that—"

"That's Colby Roland." Natasha confirmed.

Something in my mind told me that it was my cue to leave before things get awkward. Real awkward. I quickened my stride, as well as widened it. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough.

"Cole?" Clint asked.

I turned around. Clint was leaning on the doorway, blinking hard and looked quite discombobulated. I guess sustaining a blow to the head with a ten pound wrench does that you.

"Hello Clint," I said as breezily as I could muster.

"So," he winced. "How are you taking this?" He gestured around. "All of this?"

I slipped my hands in my pockets and nodded in Bryan's direction. "My friend over there says I took it rather well."

"Really?"

"Well, for one thing, I didn't knock Fury's lights out. That might change in the near future."

Clint chuckled. "He has that effect on people."

"I've noticed." I looked over his shoulder and caught Natasha's line of sight. Embarrassed, I looked back at Clint. "Is she your—"

"Partner." He interrupted. "Partner."

I put my hands on my hips and cocked an eyebrow.

"You should go." Clint said quickly.

I swear could hear Natasha smile.

When we made it to the quarters, Bryan put his hand on my shoulder before I could enter my own mini-fortress of solitude.

"Hey," he started. "I was kind of wondering . . . Clint called you 'Cole' back there. What's the story behind that?"

I faced him, a rare, genuine smile gracing my face. "Actually, it was a nickname. I gave it to myself, actually. When I was like, two-ish, I couldn't say my name, but I could say Cole. I haven't used it since."

"Would you uh—" he started twiddling his thumbs. "Would you mind if—if I started calling you that?"

"I wouldn't mind if you started now." I said, feeling incredibly . . .weird. Not sick really. I just felt . . . tingly. Then I realized what was happening to me.

God help me, I'm becoming one of my hormonal classmates!

A buzz of static in my right ear jolted me out of my romance panic. It was Fury.

"Loki's been sighted in New York. Time to suit up."

"But—but we don't—" I stuttered.

"They're in your rooms. The jet leaves in ten. Be there."

Bryan apparently got the memo, because as soon as we glanced at each other, we dashed inside our respective quarters, and the doors slid shut.

I found S.H.I.E.L.D.'s eagle insignia nearby the wall. Compelled, I pressed my palm into it. With a very faint hiss, it split into quadrants and slid into another layer of wall.

It revealed a custom uniform, tailored to my size. It had a dark gray Under Armor style shirt, and pants that had subtle lighter streaks on the sides. The black jacket was North Face styled and had the eagle insignia on both shoulders, but no tag. As I slipped it on, a Post-It fell out.

Cole—

I know you're going to flip when you get this note. Just please don't take it out on my face. Anyway, this jacket's sides are interchangeable. Just turn it inside out (or outside in. Whatever) and you can walk around in the civvie world without being ambushed by adoring S.H.I.E.L.D. fans. Oh, and its shock, fire, and bulletproof. Thought that might come in handy.

_~Clint_

I chuckled. "Way to go, big bro."

I slipped it on and met Bryan outside. He wore a black vest over a dark gray long-sleeved shirt. The shoulders had S.H.I.E.L.D.'s symbol. Hanging from his belt were two gun holsters. He wore fingerless gloves.

"I probably won't need the other one," Bryan muttered.

"What?"

"The other pistol."

"Whatever you say Chief."

"I know what I'm talking about."

As we ignored kindergarten's rules about "no running in the halls," we bumped into a more or less suited-up Tony Stark. My forehead bonked his shoulder plate with a dull _clang_.

"Oh hey!" He chirped. "Just the girl I was looking for."

He handed a gray cloth bracelet with a black clasp, kind of like one of a miniature shopping cart seatbelt.

"Uh, thanks?"

"It's a prototype energy shield," he explained. "My dad began working on it. I think it was for you."

"I put it on my left hand, and out of instinct pressed the flat back of the clasp. Silver stuff expended to the middle of my forearm. A circular indentation appeared on it

"And it can do basic stuff, like grow 'n' throw. It responds to your neural patterns—"

"What?"

"You can do that with your mind."

"Just a prototype, huh?" I tapped the metal. "What is this thing _made_ of? I can't feel it at all."

"It's vibranium."

"Vibranium?" Bryan echoed. "I thought all of it was used on Caps shield."

"We found a lot vibranium in the span of seventy years." Tony replied.

With that, he strode farther down the hall. Bryan and I glanced at each other, shrugged, and continued our flagrant kindergarten rule breaking.

As it turns out, the others were just about ready to kick the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot out of the Quinjet.

"You guys aren't authorized to be here!" He protested.

"Son . . ." Steve started. "Just don't."

He almost tripped as he ran down the boarding ramp. Clint and Natasha settle in the cockpit. Bryan and I sat across from Cap.

"What's that you got there?" He asked, gesturing to my arm brace.

"Oh, Tony gave this to me. I only had a gun, and he figured I should get a weapon of my own or whatever. It's a prototype energy shield that Tony's dad started working on after—" I tilted my head towards the cockpit. "You know. And so it might have your shield design on it. I wasn't sure whether Tony was joking or not."

Steve let out a small laugh. "I wouldn't be surprised."

"Stark," Natasha said into her headset. "We're heading northeast."

"What, did you stop for drive-thru?" He half-snapped, half-asked. "Swing by that park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

Bryan and I were thrown into the back of our seats, and I was glad Steve was wearing a seat belt.

"Out! Everybody out!" Steve yelled.

We didn't need to be told twice.

We filed out of the Quinjet, jumping before it crashed to the ground. Looks like it took a hit from the left side.

I squinted up and saw a wormhole-thingy. Chitauri and giant mechanical worms (I dub thee Leviathan) swarmed out of it.

Looks like its game on or game over.

* * *

**I AM SO SORRY. I totally missed last week's chapter. SORRY. As a side note, I'll be on vacation. I may or may not be able to upload. SORRY GUYS. However, about the sequel, there will be an interlude that takes place in between Project Gemini and the sequel. **

**The Mystic Force story will be shelved for now, until I get the Jungle Fury one completed. I also have an idea for a Lab Rats fanfic. Be on the look out!**

**Don't forget to review!**

**See you guys next time!**


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Several Chitauri landed around us, screeching in their language. They were probably debating whether to fry us or roast us on a spit.

Psh, as if that would ever happen.

"You think you can hold them off?" Cap asked

Clint got his bow out, already notching an arrow. "Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure."

Cap nodded, and rushed off in the direction of the NYPD. I activated the shield, and sure enough, it had Captain America's famous star and stripes. I got my gun out and readied it to shoot. Bryan took out a couple magazines of bullets and dumped them on the ground.

_What is he—_

Slowly, the bullets rose, spinning in a circle of protection around him. Yeah, who needs a gun when you can control them with your mind?

Several Chitauri circled us, though more were in favor of bombing the populace. Natasha raised her guns, firing simultaneously. Clint shot two arrows at the same time. Some of the bullets in Bryan's shield broke off and ripped through several Chitauri before returning to his shield.

The Chitauri wielded staff-like weapons, glowing blue. I didn't need three guesses to know what they were powered by. One of then raised their staff, aiming it at me. I raised my shield, bracing for impact.

I felt nothing. The shield rippled where the blast hit. I grinned.

As the Chitauri edged closer to us, we pushed out ward. I shot several of the closest ones, as well as throw the energy shield. Another one appeared as soon as the other took flight.

Some of them got too close for my liking.

I holstered my gun. I vaulted over one, smashing my shield into the nape of its neck. It crumpled.

I went on like that, shooting forward and taking down any Chitauri that got too close or any of the civilians trapped in their vehicles. Bryan covered my back, bullets clearly mangling its target.

I was glad he was on our side.

The four of us edged closer to a multi-car pile-up and an overturned bus. And although none of us communicated in anyway, a plan formed in our heads.

Bryan and I helped the civilians get away from the crossfire and into the subway entrances. Those who need medical attention would be assisted by the NYPD. Natasha and Clint covered our backs.

We moved closer to Times Square, where everyone was screaming and running away from. So naturally, that's where the Chitauri went.

We met up with Cap, and Thor flew down to join us.

"Looks like Banner's missing the party." I remarked.

"Now is not the time for jest." Thor said. "The powers surrounding the cube are impenetrable."

"Thor's right," Stark said. "We gotta deal with this guys."

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.

"As a team." Cap said.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor stated.

"Yeah?" Clint asked, screwing a tip to an arrow, "Get in line."

"Already there." Bryan said.

"Save it," Cap said. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he gonna need us . . ."

He trailed off as Banner arrived in front of us on a motorcycle the speed of a turtle. He set it against a crumpled car.

"So," Banner said. "This all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse." Natasha said.

"Sorry."

"No," Natasha said quickly. "We could use a little worse."

"Stark, we got him," Cap said into his earpiece. "Banner, just like you said."

"Tell him to suit up," Stark replied. "I'm bringing the party to you."

I could make out the tiny silhouette of Iron Man against the giant Leviathan. It's side fins scraped through a building. It followed Tony, its jaw hanging. It was ready to snap him up in one gulp. That was until Tony began skimming the ground. The Leviathan followed suit.

Natasha's eyes widened. "I—I don't see how that's a party."

"It's not very bright, is it?" I muttered to Bryan.

He chuckled, and although his bullets were in his pockets, they were vibrating from his hyper-alertness and anxiety.

Cap stepped forward. "Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

With a roar, he Hulked out. As the Leviathan came skidding into the Hulk, one punch sent shockwaves throughout its body. With a groan, it crumpled like a pop can.

We thought we were about to win, until the Chitauri swarmed out of he portal, easily a hundred-fold. Well, no one was about to celebrate anyway.

"Guys." Natasha said.

Several Chitauri landed around us, skidding down the sides of the buildings. They roared as one, vibrating my eardrums. Hulk roared even louder. I'm surprised Clint's ears didn't start bleeding.

The Chitauri fell silent.

Iron Man lifted his repulsors.

Hawkeye notched an arrow.

Thor twirled his hammer.

Black Widow reloaded her guns.

Captain America readied his shield.

Bryan's bullets twirled around his wrists, like thick bracelets.

I cocked my gun and reactivated my shield.

"Call it Captain!" Tony said.

"Alright, listen up!" Cap ordered. "Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and stray. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it around, or you turn it to ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?" Clint asked.

"Right." Tony grabbed Clint by the collar. "Better clench up, Legolas."

They rocketed up to the building at our two o'clock.

"Thor," Cap. "You gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You've got the lightning, light the bastards up!" He turned to the remaining three of us. "The four of us, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. Pick off any on the buildings."

Hulk grunted.

"And Hulk?"

"Hunh?"

"Smash!"

The Hulk roared, leaping on the nearest Chitauri vessel.

Several Chitauri singled me out, me being the runt of the group. I easily had about a dozen after me.

I shot the ones closest to me, raising my shield when one of them fired at me. I heard a faint _pshoo_, like someone blew a kazoo. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

I dove to the side, a blue bullet blasting a crater where I had just been. Dust shot up like someone banging two chalkboard erasers together.

I landed on my back, and squinted in the direction the blast came from. It was a Chitauri sniper that found its way onto Clint's rooftop. And just because I can be a charitable person, I shot at it, and immediately returned my attention the remaining Chitauri.

I holstered my gun and swung my legs around, climbing up the nearest Chitauri using my momentum. I soon sat on its shoulder. It shrieked in outrage. I jerked its neck and leapt to the next one, vaulting and shooting in the split-second I was in the air. The rest fell to the ground. With my current adversaries downed, I turned to see how the others were faring.

Bryan didn't hold back, and any Chitauri that got within ten feet of him were gone in an instant. Steve was covering Natasha's back, and said Russian assassin managed to snatch one of the Chitauri's staff weapons. She managed to sand hack with the twenty-pound stick pretty well too.

"Captain," Natasha said, leaning on her staff. "None of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it!" Cap replied.

Natasha eyed the beam of light coming from Stark Tower. "Well, maybe its not about guns."

"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride."

She glanced up at Chitauri's hoverboards. "I got a ride. I could use a lift, though."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah," she threw the staff to the side. "Its gonna be fun."

She positioned herself so she could get a decent running start, jump off the hood of a taxi, and land on Cap's shield.

She did it perfectly (What? Did you expect freaking _Black Widow_ to screw up?) and Cap used his strength to launch her to a now-commandeered hoverboard.

When a few Chitauri realized that throwing themselves at people that can defend themselves wasn't going to work, they _really_ busted into the buildings.

A couple dozen Chitauri broke off into a fifty-story commercial building. I squinted, and estimated that the Chitauri-shaped holes were on the thirty-seventh floor.

"Ready?" Bryan asked as he looped an arm around my waist.

"Wha—"

I shut up as we rocketed upwards, and floated through the hole in the wall. We landed gently on the carpet, and Bryan became very aware that he was still holding on to me. Blushing profusely, he slowly retracted his arm back to his side.

About ten or so Chitauri were terrorizing a group of workers. Well, that's one way to get them out of their cubicles. Most of them were trying to shrink into the walls or hiding under their desks.

I shot the Chitauri closest to us, and it crumpled. The loud _bang_ got everyone's attention. Just what I was hoping for.

The rest of the Chitauri spun around, and hissed when they was one of of their own had just been killed.

They jumped over the tables, knocking them over.

"Let's just get this over with." Bryan muttered, raised his hands.

I cupped my hands beside my mouth. "Hit the deck!"

No one needed to be told twice.

People scrambled for cover, whole others were pulled to the ground. Soon, the Chitauri were dead on the ground.

Everyone started to get up, until a blue and silver round _thing_ rolled to my feet. It began blinking.

A Leviathan swooped past, and I made one of my famous it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time decisions.

I threw the grenade into its gaping mouth and Bryan tossed in the Chitauri corpses as an added bonus.

I was a little too close to the fireworks for my liking, but I didn't get, say, a piece of shrapnel in my chest or something.

Standing at the edge, I looked down. Steve was surrounded on all sides.

I took a few steps back, and took a running start. I tumbled through the air, activating my shield. I slammed it into the back off the head of the nearest Chitauri, sending it into a pile of rubble. I drove my fist into an uppercut, and with the combined power of the shield and the super-soldier serum's strength, sent a couple Chitauri into a hoverboard.

And I hardly felt a thing; the shield absorbed ninety-nine percent of the impact.

Behind me, I heard Steve cry out in pain. It was followed by a grunt and a crunch of gravel.

I slammed y shield into the ground, creating a shockwave that sent the closest Chitauri back several feet. I squeezed off a few quick shots, covering Steve's back. I noticed that his mask was torn off.

I helped Steve up. His left hand covered a wound on his torso. "You sure you're okay for another round?"

He picked up his shield. "What, you getting sleepy?"

My earpiece buzzed. "I can close it!" Natasha yelled. "Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!" Steve said.

"No, wait!" Stark cried out.

"Stark, these things are still coming!"

"I got a nuke coming in," Stark asserted. "And I know just where to put it."

I saw the Iron Man suit fly towards the missile, steering it straight into the portal.

"Stark," Steve said softly. "You know that's a one-way trip."

"Yeah," he replied. "I know."

Then he was gone.

* * *

**Just a few announcements I'd like to make:**

**I'll occasionally review my OWN STORIES just 'cause its the closest thing I have to a blog. Yeah. My parents won't let me get one. I practically had to grovel to get an account on this site. YES.**

**And there's about one more chapter left. The interlude I talked about earlier is going to be in the Captain America section. You can put me on alert so you can be notified. I just don't like puting one-liners as chapters.**

**And updates are probably going to be much slower from here on out. Curse you school year! **

**And did you notice that back-to-school commercials don't even bother to lessen the blow of school being back in session?**

**Am I forgetting anything?**

**Colby: *ahem* review!**

**Yeah. What she said.**


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

A couple minutes after Stark did his whole "Kamikaze self-sacrifice" thing, Bryan and Thor joined us at the ground.

"Stark," Bryan gasped. "The nuke—did he really just—"

I put a hand on Bryan's shoulder. "Yes. He really did." I looked up at Cap. "Do we wait?"

He shook his head, and spoke into his earpiece. "Close the portal."

A few moments of hesitation, the portal began to close into a wisp. It looked like it collapsed in on itself, until the crack in the sky melted away.

A bit of it broke away and plummeted back to the ground, glinting red and gold—

"Son of a gun!" Steve exclaimed.

"He's not slowing down," Thor said, spinning his hammer. He conjured up a cross breeze.

Bryan raised his hands, but he stumbled over. I caught him.

"It's not going to be enough." Bryan murmured.

A might roar rang through the air, and I covered my head as the Hulk flew overhead. He snatched Tony out of the air, skidded down a building, and stopped in front of us. Gently, he set the Tony down.

Thor reached down and ripped off the faceplate. The light on his chest plate indicated that Tony's Arc Reactor had shut off. His eyes were closed, and he wasn't breathing. He almost looked like he was at peace.

Tony Stark? At peace?

The world must obviously be coming to an end.

Steve, who had been sitting, rocked back on his heels. The Hulk reared its head and roared at the deactivated Chitauri.

"DYAUGH—W—What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me no one kissed me!"

Tony Stark's sudden outburst had caused me to jump back a few feel. Other than that, everyone looked relieved. The Hulk even cracked a goofy little grin.

"We won." Steve said.

"Alright then." Tony continued on his tangent. "Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Hey, have you tried shawarma?"

I tried not to roll my eyes—and failed miserably.

"There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

"We're not finished yet." Thor reminded him.

"Fine. And then shawarma after."

Eventually, Clint and Natasha, who held Loki's scepter, joined us.

"So," I said. "Should we wake Sleeping Beauty?"

"Sure," Tony said." But JARVIS says that the elevator's fried, and I've gotta recharge my batteries."

I ignored his last comment. "We could take the stairs."

"Do you have any idea how many stories that is?"

I side-glanced at Bryan. He shook his head.

"Okay then." I turned to Tony. "Any bright ideas?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"You're the genius that built and designed the tower."

"Hulk throw Colby!"

I forgot he was there during the whole exchange. Steve, Clint, and Natasha just watched, probably for their amusement.

"Wait, what?" I stuttered. "I don't think—OH MY GOD!"

In a matter of seconds, Hulk had picked me up and sent me _flying._ He pretty took care of my vertical challenge. I just need to cover the twelve-ish feet that could made the difference between making it to safe and having New York City have a brand new stain on its streets. Even if the super-soldier serum helped cushion that blow, I'd still have a nasty bruise by morning.

I tucked my feet in, and somersaulted. I though that I wouldn't have enough momentum, so I'd be clinging to the crumbling edge of Stark Tower. Instead, I skidded on my back and crashed into the base of the base of the stairs, next to an unconscious Loki.

Hastily, I got to my feet as the others got thrown up here, with an exception of Thor. He just flew up here.

As soon as the Hulk himself leapt up here, we filed into a semicircle. Clint was in the front, an arrow aimed at Loki's face. Tony and the Hulk stood to the right of him. Steve, Bryan, and I were behind him. Natasha, still holding the scepter, stood farther back. Thor moved to stand in front of her, in case Loki used the Force to magick the stick into his hand.

Slowly, Loki came to. He blinked a couple times. His eyes settled on the arrow two inches away from his face, and gulped.

"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."

In twenty minutes, Loki was handcuffed with Asgardian doohickeys, and the Avengers assembled in the fabled shawarma joint.

For the most part, I don't think it was at all what we expected. Even with the sped-up metabolism, Steve and I were only picking at our food, while Thor and Banner were chowing down. Tony didn't even bother to pretend to have fun. Clint and Natasha were trying not to fall asleep.

"This is why I stick with PB and J," Bryan said dryly.

At least the folks here get to brag in the face f that one other place that had Justin Timberlake eat there.

Nearly forty minutes later, we were changed out of our gear (though I kept the jacket) and were sitting at the cafeteria table.

"First order of business, congrats." Fury began. "As expected, cleaning up is going to take time. However, this victory did come with its casualties."

He slid a manila file in front of me. I didn't open it; I already knew what this was.

"How did—how did this—"

"Grenade." Fury replied. "At the grocery store. He dove on top of it so the others could get away."

It wasn't shocking that Josh would do something like that.

_You'll see me again, I promise._

And that was the only promise Joshua Carson Roland ever broke.

The only real thing I could think of doing without breaking down in tears at that point would be to just sit there. And I did, until Bryan took my hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze, rubbing soothing circles with his thumb.

Keeping my eyes on the manila folder, I could feel the eyes of everyone else's on me, mostly pity. I think the real sympathy came from Clint, Steve, and Bryan especially. Maybe even Tony.

"And now that Real Power has been taken of, what should we do with him?" Tony asked.

"Loki is to accompany me to Asgard." Thor boomed. "Along with Tesseract."

I looked up. "Fine by me. Just get the two of them as far away from this planet as you can."

The others nodded their agreement, murmuring.

"Good. Be in Central Park in oh-two hundred."

Everyone began to get up.

"Roland, Rogers, Coulson." Fury said. "You three need to stay."

"Okay then." I said. "Staying."

Once everyone had either left or retook their seat, Fury began speaking directly at Bryan and I.

"Stark has generously made arrangements for you two to stay at Stark Tower. We've already had your things transferred." He looked at Bryan pointedly. "The next matter is a private one."

It took Bryan a few seconds to get the message. "What? Oh yeah, sure. I'll leave."

He squeezed my hand one last time before leaving.

After waiting to make sure he was out of earshot, Fury slid two files in front of Steve and I.

"We managed to come up with a couple cover stories for you two, given your current . . . family issues."

Okay, some details I just wanted to get out of the way: I'm fourteen, and Steve still looks like he twenty-four. Being ten years apart would be a little weird for a brother/sister relationship, but not as much as a father/daughter relationship when you give it some thought.

And so I had my name changed to Colby Rogers. I just needed to pick out a middle name.

"Um, any suggestions?" I asked awkwardly.

Steve, who was probably wondering, _What the heck did I just sign?_, shrugged. "Not in the faintest."

I thought a bit more, and wrote one down.

Steve looked over. "That's a strange one."

"I'm a strange person. I was a fetus created in a test tube, and stuck in an incubator for nine months."

After plopping the paperwork on Fury's desk, Steve was dismissed, and Fury gave me a wry smile.

"The World Security Council would like to have a few words with you."

"The who?"

"The fine folks who ordered the nuke on Manhattan."

"What a fine group of people concerned for the safety of other people." I said dryly. "How do you put up with them?"

"Grin and bear it."

"You grin?"

Fury rolled his eyes and led me to an obscure room in an even darker corner of the Helicarrier. I wasn't beginning to doubt Bryan when he said that he had memorized the interior, but I was starting to suspect a training center in the air vents.

The WSC room was dark, with four blank screens stretching from the control panel to the ceiling. I hoped this place had soundproofing, because if the situation took a nosedive, things could get _loud_.

At once the Council's respective screens turned on, and you could dimly make out their faces.

The first Councilman spoke. "You are the product of a disobeyed order."

"Nice to meet you too." I said wryly.

"As my esteemed my colleague was saying," the Councilwoman said calmly, but crossly. "You are a threat that must be neutralized."

"And the others on the Avengers Initiative _aren't_? You're telling me _Black Widow_ isn't a threat? Or Iron Man?"

"They have proven who's side they're on." The third Councilman said.

"You are young, and easily swayed by petty causes." The Councilwoman pressed.

"Like what, Justin Bieber?" I snorted. "You must be joking. You really think that? You really think that I'm _that_ naïve?"

"It is simply just a precaution." The third Councilman said, backpedaling quickly.

I scoffed. "So then what if you deemed me a 'threat?'" I curled my fingers into air quotes. "Then what? Are you going to shoot me? Or tear me limb from limb? Or melt me down into a pile of goo? _What_ would you do to me?"

"What we always do." Councilman _numero uno_ said. "Neutralize them."

The second Councilman had his hands folded, and didn't say anything, but he exhaled deeply.

"But I'm not a threat!" I protested.

"Perhaps . . . if you can prove that." The Councilman said.

"And how would that be?" The Councilwoman asked.

"Hey, here's an idea," I said sarcastically in my sarcastic/fake I'm-a-genius voice. "How 'bout you wait till I actually _commit_ a crime punishable by federal law, first, 'kay?"

The Councilwoman's face was stony. Then the screens shut off.

"Did they just hang up on me?" I asked.

Fury shook his head. "They're coming to a decision."

"What if its split fifty-fifty?"

"Then I come in."

"Then you better vouch for me."

Well, it ended up that it was the case. Councilman one and the Councilwoman thought that I should be melted back down into a puddle of Steve's genes.

The others . . . didn't.

Long, _long_ debate cut short, as long as I'm not confirmed to be "a threat," I'm fine. If not, well, I'm screwed.

Isn't that just dandy?

Thirty minutes later, I was standing on the grounds of Central Park. SHIELD made sure that everyone was busy contributing to the rebuilding efforts and those reporters were covering _that_, and not the Avengers sending off two Asgardian demigods via Tesseract.

Well, the Avengers and a non-brainwashed Eric Selvig. He's actually a nice guy—older than Bruce and Tony, definitely—not influenced by a need to be isolated. And another plus is that he doesn't have that same level of . . . Tony-ism that the man himself has.

I managed to at least make eye contact with everyone. I gave Clint a hug (got my hair ruffled in the process), shared a firm handshake with Natasha, Banner, and Selvig, tried my best to ignore Tony, and went to stand awkwardly next to Steve.

"This has got to be the most awkward brother/sister relationship _ever,_" I mumbled.

Steve sucked in a shaky breath and smiled nervously, "I was more awkward with women."

I shrugged and patted his arm. "You'll get better at it. Eventually." Bryan came over and took my hand. "Maybe I can teach you to use some of today's stuff."

My newly documented brother smiled gratefully. "I'd appreciate that."

Finally, Thor and a muzzled, handcuffed Loki stepped into the ring. Thor nodded to us respectfully, and motioned for Loki to hold the dial on his side of the device, which was already turned in the horizontal position. With one last thankful nod, he turned the dial.

A brilliant azure glow spread from the Tesseract, encompassing them both. Everyone stepped back, watching the light shoot skyward.

All the rest of the Avengers (and Selvig) drove off, except for Steve. Bryan and I were obviously too young to drive, so we'd be walking to Stark Tower.

"So," Steve shifted uncomfortably on his feet. "Will you guys be able to come this Saturday?"

"Sure," I replied. "We'll come over whenever we can, if you want. We have school Monday thru Friday. The rest of that, we're either studying, training, or raising money."

Steve looked confused. "Raising money for what?"

"Two funerals," I said simply. "I mean, we could have Tony pay for it, but still . . ."

Steve nodded. "I understand."

He slung a leg over his motorcycle and gave us a two-fingered salute. Then he was off, leaving Bryan and I holding hands in Central Park.

* * *

**Ermagerd that took FOREVAH! And Colby has some announcements to make!**

**Colby: Bryan and I have a tumblr (although I use it most of the time) its askcolbyandbryan . tumblr . com. Without spaces, 'course. Feel free to ask use any questions you'd like, and don't forget to follow!  
MysticRyter also has a poll on her profile if you want to check it out. And the interlude it UP! It's called A Different Kind of Soldier.**

**MysticRyter: Thanks guys for reviewing, favoriting, following. It means the world to me. It sounds cheesy, and it is. But this is my first story that had at least five reviews. The sequel will also be posted (hopefully) after ADKoS.**

**This is MysticRyter, signing out!**


	11. ANNOUNCEMENT

**GUESS WHO'S BACK? I know, I know, I promised a sequel earlier, but as I saw Iron Man 3 and got psyched for Marvel Phase 2. So yeah...this is during Iron Man 3...**

* * *

Sometimes things got a little crazy, living in Stark Tower. Having to share the floors with renowned billionaire playboy philanthropist, is seemed like the fire alarm went off every week . . . correction. _Hour_.

When Pepper and Tony decided to stay at Tony's "official" house in Malibu, I almost wanted to go with them (because I mean, come on, _Malibu_). Then I remembered: _Tony_ and _Pepper_.

Haha, no thank you.

But there is one opportunity any teenager would exploit at almost any given moment: being home alone.

Except for the tiny detail that I _wasn't_ home alone. Natasha Romanoff was one of my teammates, er, colleagues. Clint Barton was my babysitter when I was little. Their rooms were down the hall, but they were hardly there. Tony came and went. The only other permanent resident was Bryan Coulson, and we were beyond acquaintances, though we weren't full-blown _dating_ dating.

Who were those people, you ask? If you've read my last case file (it sounds so much cooler than "diary," but if you're reading this, your clearance level must be pretty impressive), Project Gemini, then you also know exactly who they are. And you also know about the crap that happened last year.

But then again, _everyone_ knew about that.

Everyone seemed to flip out about the Avengers; most civilians went crazy about us. Avengers t-shirts were flying off the shelves. People tattooed Captain America's shield, Tony's arc reactor, Thor's hammer, et cetera, on their arms, legs, _et cetera_.

Someone spray painted a giant "THANK YOU AVENGERS," and no one's bothered to paint over it.

Most of us aren't really concerned with getting out identities revealed. Clint and Natasha are hardly seen on the streets. Everyone knows that Tony is Iron Man, and Thor is, well, Thor. And I don't think anyone is going to figure out that gangly Bruce Banner is actually the Hulk.

The only concerns we have (as well as the boss, good 'ol Nick Fury) is Steve, Bryan and I. Later in the battle, one of the Chitauri ripped off Steve's mask, and Bryan and I weren't wearing one at all. I think SHIELD was able to get their hands on every single clip of us, but they can't erase everyone's memory. Well, as far as I know, anyway.

As of yet, no one's harassed either Bryan or I whenever we walked Ms. Woodsman'sbarking Q-tip, or any other odd jobs we could find around the Big Apple.

Why were Bryan and I scraping every cent we could find, you ask? Many of you people with the high clearance (or any clearance, really) know that Bryan's dad, Phil Coulson, died of a fatal chest wound on the Helicarrier. My adoptive dad/brother figure, Josh Roland was pretty young, but he was a retired SHIELD agent, taking me in. He died diving on a grenade during the Battle.

Things really haven't been the same since. Not since I found out I was the clone of Captain America. Yeah. Me, Colby Ray Rogers. Project Gemini, I was called by the World Security Council. They're breathing heavily down my neck. One wrong move, and I'm toast. No pressure, really.

Where was I? Oh. Josh, Phil. Right. Since Bryan and I are trying to pay for _two_ funerals, Tony insisted on paying for most, in not _all_, of the expenses for both. Bryan and I were adamant on paying for them ourselves, but after many, _many_ walk-the-living-Q-tip sessions, we began to see the wisdom in not letting two bodies (well, one and whatever was left of Josh, anyway) sit in a freezer forever. The last thing we needed for them (and the last thing I—as well as Bryan—wanted to see _on_ them) was freezer burn.

Anyway, when Tony left thus bring Pepper with him), I figured the guy needed some time away, you know? I guess the "New York incident" left an impression on him, and not the best one.

Bryan told me Tony stayed up late, though he didn't really elaborate, nothing really made sense. Well, until the exploding people shed some light on the subject.

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**DUN DUN DUN...**

**So, announcements. I WILL NOT UPDATE DESIGNATION 2.0 UNTIL THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS ARE MET:**

**I'm giving Colby and Bryan a redesign. I already have Colby's costume, color scheme, and codename picked out.**

**Bryan however, I need costume ideas. So. if you would be so kind to submit them in your reviews, I'd really appreciate it. If you can sketch it and submit it to by Avengers rp tumblr (link on my profile), that's all the better!**

**See you guys next time!**


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